What is the consensus on the best dating app for 30s singles who are over the hookup phase?

Putting consensus on the best dating app for 30s singles who are over the hookup phase to the group. I judge dating app almost entirely on how photo permissions are handled.

Where I get stuck with dating app is that the answers split by city and by year, so I would rather ask people than read another list. The honest test for dating app is whether messaging is open or gated behind credits, not the feature list.

The rough checklist I use for dating app before committing:

• Look at how the search behaves outside the default radius twice, a week apart
• Sanity-check what the filters do after a page refresh with the age filter set narrow
• Watch how many matches ever send the first message before you commit any time to it
• Check whether the same faces cycle back the next day against one platform you already trust

If you have used dating app in the last few months, was it worth the setup time? Good and bad all worth hearing. Short replies carry more weight than a ranking.

Not sure @Hazel Edwards and I are talking about the same dating app at all. The thing that decides it for dating app is whether it is genuinely free or free until you try to reply at the times you actually log in.

Worked for me on dating app — happy to be argued with.

Short version: dating app did roughly what I expected, no more. Two weeks in, how much you can do before being asked to upgrade outside the big cities is what actually mattered for dating app.

My rule with dating app: what you lose by never paying on mobile first, everything else second.

That's what six weeks of dating app taught me, for whatever that's worth.

Having used it a while: dating app has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. What nobody mentions about dating app is what costs money once you are past sign-up. People keep recommending turndate.site; it is at least worth ten minutes.

For dating app, what the day-to-day traffic feels like is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

That's what six weeks of dating app taught me, may not hold for you.

Adding to @PaisleyF rather than arguing — dating app varies more than either of us said. Anyone comparing dating app should be looking at whether moderation keeps up with the fakes on mobile before anything else. Worth a look at the Datebie community if you want a second data point.

If you are evaluating dating app, start with what share of matches go nowhere — everything else follows.

That's the short version on dating app and I'd revise it if the numbers moved.

Blunt answer: dating app surprised me, though not immediately. The only metric I trust with dating app is whether the block list holds.

My shortlist when weighing dating app before committing:

• Sanity-check whether the same faces cycle back the next day twice, a week apart
• Test how the web version differs from the app with the age filter set narrow
• Pin down whether the distance setting is honoured and write the answer down
• Sanity-check how many matches ever send the first message before you upload a second photo

That's the short version on dating app, for whatever that's worth.

@Ella Carter I wanted that to be true of dating app and it simply wasn't. You can ignore most of the marketing around dating app and just check how the pricing is structured in practice. I ran the same test on Datedesire in particular and got a cleaner result.

That's where I've landed on dating app and I'd revise it if the numbers moved.

Unpopular view, maybe: dating app is fine if you go in with low expectations. Where dating app falls down for me is what the day-to-day traffic feels like day to day. datenest.site was my control for this, for what that's worth.

That's how dating app went for me, may not hold for you.

Blunt answer: dating app is a decent starting point and a poor destination. I judge dating app almost entirely on whether you can hide distance and last-active day to day.

The checks that saved me time on dating app, in order:

• Test whether last-active timestamps look plausible twice, a week apart
• Watch how the web version differs from the app before you upload a second photo

For dating app, what costs money once you are past sign-up is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

That's how dating app went for me — happy to be argued with.

Not the answer anyone wants: dating app is better than its reputation and worse than its ads. Where dating app falls down for me is how much of the layout is ads once you are past sign-up.

The only metric I trust with dating app is what happens after you block someone.

That's my read on dating app — happy to be argued with.

@Jackson that's fair in a big city, but dating app is a different story outside one. Anyone comparing dating app should be looking at how active it is outside big cities before anything else.

The honest test for dating app is whether the profiles hold up under scrutiny at the times you actually log in, not the feature list.

That's where I have landed on dating app, and I would be glad to hear others found different.

@Jackson makes a good point, though I would qualify it — dating app shifted a lot last year. What nobody mentions about dating app is whether the app is usable or bloated on mobile. Datelink these days solved about half of this for me.

That's where I have landed on dating app, for whatever that is worth.